Ive been following your work, and I would emplode out of happiness if you could answer a persian artists weird question. Can you print 3D paintings. I mix a few different types of primer and paint so I can put it in a squeeze bottle. I sometimes drop 500 dots which dries overnight. Can It be programmed to do such a thing?

I am going to start printing this weekend...I have an automated build platform and one of the original cupcakes. You said it takes a month to print...how fast do you think I can get it done with an ABP? I'm going to try for 1 week :)...as long as I don't run out of ABS :) I think I am going to go with an all black color scheme kind of like you. I am going to be modding mine a lot though to add more holes to mount my boards to on the underside (I recently upgraded to Gen 4 electronics and it all doesn't fit on the side) and I want to add LOTS OF LEDS!!! I am really impressed with your stuff webca. Thanks for everything! I flattr'ed you!

Cool, cant wait to see the finished result:) You can probably get it down to one week if you can print from early morning to late night. There are some factors that can influence the time in either direction, and that is of course print-speed and fill of the individual plates.

Thanks for your kind words, and i will definitively flatter you back when your project is done:)

Can you upload the 3ds files? I can't seem to get this stuff opened in google sketchup pro. I have solidworks but I can't install it on ubuntu using wine...all kinds of issues there :( I have some major tweaks I want to do! Opening the cupcake dxf files into google sketchup makes it crash :(

And I've decided to do all black with the orange "mendel insprired low rider" :)

No, they are correct. But i think i know what you are doing wrong... When assigning the pieces to their place (laying them out on a table), you put them face down. And then the pieces are numbered from left to right and top to bottom (like text in a book).

I just wanted the top faces to face outward because of the smoother finish. Only one piece so far(bottom right corner, front#10) I should have flipped over in RepG. So I just ended up having the bottom layer face outward on that piece instead of doing it over. It still works. I'm printing them out in white ABS.

No worries. I am going to print this once I get my makerbot built. Since I have time on the weekends I can do the gcode for each major part. Maybe I could email you the gcode so that you can post it. Great work!!!! This is such a cool concept! :)

get a good profile going before you start to make gcode. (test it on the machine you are going to print the thing on). once you get a profile you can open up skeinforge and turn on polyfile and it will process an entire folder of stl files with the same profile. you will need to check the files first (center and put on platform) but it goes pretty fast and you can run the files while you sleep.

I've been using acetone on everything I print out lately. If you print a few solid layers around each object you can sand things down fairly nicely then dip/coat them in a small amount of acetone and hang them out the window to dry. It's not that hard to get mirror finishes like this. It also works really well for bonding parts together. I've had some parts that were made of 4-5 pieces and the seams formed together such that people have not been able to tell they were bonded. Also the parts I coat in acetone seem stronger overall than the parts I don't. Acetone also makes most parts airtight and if you toss waste plastic into a bowl of acetone and make a slushy you can use it to fill larger gaps or coat your build platform for some super sticky smooth prints (If you don't have a hbp or even if you do and for some reason stuff doesnt stick)

i'm just new all this, but i really want to build myself a 3d printer it would help me so much bringing my ideas to life. the only problem is that i dont know were to start. could you push me into the right direction? like refer me to somthing of how to build a 3D printer and were i can learn and read more about it, i just can't find the right information.

just discovered something that is of great use to anyone attempting this

TeamTeamUSA just posted in the blog about an automated slicing of a folder of objects.

"skeinforge will slice a folder full of files via the Meta
&
gt; Polyfile tool.Using Skeinfox I copied a working profile then enabled the Polyfile tool and saved the copy as the batch version of the profile. I used it on a custom sized Transformer and it worked great!"

this is the kind of job where support material would be completely awesome. you could stack 5-6 parts on top of each other with support between each layer and do everything in 1/5th or the time or less. should be done by tomorrow i think

thanks, i am almost done (printed top, bottom, middle, left, right and back) , have to do the front and then figure out how to make a mendel x axis to go along with the y axis that i have printed.. i am putting all the electronics below so i am skipping the power panel for now till i can figure out a good way to keep access to the reset, power and SD slot.

whew.. still have more to go but that was HUGE all the frame parts are done. i cant decide to do silver PLA or black ABS as the secondary color (x/y carrage, rod caps bearing caps, text, etc). I printed two left walls so i can put the electronics underneath. I got a miniature version of them a long time ago they will fit perfectly inside the bottom case. I have a power brick that will go outside.

I think it's because I didn't rebuild it on RepG 19 which makes a distinction between MK4 and MK5. I have MK5. RepG 18 lacks those additional build options. I'll find out later. And yes to Webca, that I am printing one for myself.

No, im currently working on something different. A revision would only reduce the number by a couple of pieces. All the joints are placed where they dont interfere with the design of the "real" makerbot.

i think this is amamzing, but my pfroblem is I'm always looking for problems. The size of the cupcake cnc limits it to certain things. is there any reason why you couldn't use it to make bigger versions of itself, after all the electronics will all be the same size regarldess, so what else would need to be bigger?

I could have made it as big as i wanted, but my goal was to make it identical to the cupcake cnc. If you are going to try it yourself then you cant just scale the entire design, you have to add pieces to the design i made;)

This is very cool what you've managed. Bravo!
I do have a question though. Is there any reason these parts couldn't be designed with puzzle connectors? The shopbot gang designed a house that used such a joint, so the whole thing could be assembled with a mallet. Maybe you'd still have to hot melt for rigidity, but the idea of a dismantle-able makerbot seems tempting?
Again, great job.
David
http://www.davidbeede.comwww.davidbeede.com

I would like to take this opportunity to give a big thank you, to the Makerbot crew. About 30 minutes after i posted this design i got an email from Bre saying there was a package in the mail for me. When i recieved the package i found 5lbs of a new prototype plastic "UV-reactive", which probably means it glows under blacklight. In addition to that i got a makerbot t-shirt and the book "Made by hand" by Mark Frauenfelder (Editor in chief of make).

This is what i love about Makerbot industries, they really do care about their product and costumers, in a way that you dont see too often these days.

Thanks Christian, we appreciate your hard work and what an achievement! We were literally in shock at what you had created- This is why we love what open-source technology can provide, an fresh outlet for users to innovate and send ideas back to the world in new forms. Keep it up! -Isaac

Every 3D printer that can make strong parts (including RepRap and MakerBot) can make a RepRap. Now they can all make a MakerBot too. The more conventional 3D printers there are out there, the more replicated printers they can make. The implications for the population dynamics of this technology are as awesome as they are obvious.

You are persistent beyond belief. Having printed out three sets of RepRap parts myself I know how much time it takes to queue hundreds of parts. But this is so amazingly original, this first Makerbotted Makerbot is a relic. I feel humbled. This is "HISTORY IN THE MAKING"!

It would probably cost you the price of an CupCake CNC Basic Kit minus the lasercut parts, seeing that it took me around a month to do all the printing. So if money is not a problem, i will do it for you;)

Just the way we like it! 8-) Really awesome, i can only imagine the amount of work invested to get all the parts in 3D and as STL, and then there is like an endless queue of skeinforging and printing. And the fun does not even stop there...

Gratz on getting it done and assembled! These pictures and all the 3D data just made my birthday even better, awesome present, dude! ;)

I was already thinkering about adapting some of the wood parts for printing, mainly the x and y stage, because i see some potential improvements to be made. Now i can just take your parts and modify them, taking a lot of work from my shoulders. Thank you!